Sixty years a journalist, red-haired Brenda Starr began her career as a funny paper version of the pretty girl daredevil reporter who was a staple of movies and radio over a half century ago. Created by a woman named Dale Messick, Brenda Starr, Reporter made its first appearance in 1940. It was a combination of newspaper melodrama and frilly romance. There had been female reporters in the comic sections before her, notably Jane Arden, but Brenda seemed to epitomize the type and she managed to outlast all the competition.

The strip owes its existence in part to the Chicago Tribune's uneasiness about the phenomenal success of comic books. The advent of Superman, Batman and then a host of other costumed heroes had caused hundreds of adventure-based comic books to hit the newsstands and, in many cases, to thrive. To offer its younger readers something similar that...